Newfoundland - Seeing the Fjords and the Mantle of the Earth

We're looking forward to another day of our Newfoundland adventure, hosted by our nephew and niece that are living here now. We spent last night in the town of Deer Lake, and this morning we used the wild blueberries we picked yesterday to make pancakes.

That's a plate-full of yummy pancakes where we had lots of blueberries in every bite!

From our airbnb house on the lake, it's about an hour's drive to our destination for the day. The clouds are laying low on the mountains as we make our drive to Gros Morne National Park.

We are now on the western side of the island. While moose can be found all over Newfoundland, the warning signs are more frequent on this side of the province.

Caribou also live in the national park, and we would have loved to see them as well. But our trip today didn't have any wildlife sightings--only wildlife warning signs.

Our priority today is the West Brook Pond Fjord Boat Tour. While our hosts have lived here close to two years, they haven't been able to take this boat trip that always shows up at the top of "must-see-things-in-Newfoundland." Between lockdowns and forced distancing, the Canadian government has shut down most tourist attractions for the last year and a half. So we are excited that the boats are now sailing for our visit. It's a one-mile hike to the boat dock, but we paused for a picture at the start of the trail.

Since the sign says that there are bears in the area, we all put on our best scary bear faces in preparation for our hike.

It's still cloudy, and you can tell from our wardrobe that it is a little chilly this morning. But again, we're blessed with placid water for another boat ride.

We ate our picnic lunch where the line formed on the dock, and we were some of the first people to get to board our boat.

That scored us eight seats together on the top section of the boat.

Our boat first took us across West Brook Pond, which we found is actually a lake. By definition, a pond is smaller than a lake, and this body of water was definitely big enough to be classified as lake-size. So our tour should have really been name West Brook LAKE Fjord Tour.

Fjord is a word that doesn't show up in our conversation very often, because they aren't found in too many places in the world. A fjord is a long, narrow ocean inlet with steep sides or cliffs that were carved by a glacier. Our boat trip is taking us up a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, but it is no longer connected to the ocean. So instead of being in a "salt water fjord," we found out today that we are actually in a "fresh water sound." So now we are learning that we are actually on the West Brook LAKE SOUND tour, instead of the West Brook Pond Fjord Tour. What?!? Whatever the actual name, it's a beautiful place to be.

Definitions aside, the rock walls around us are up to 1,600 feet tall, and they made us feel very small.

On our boat ride, we were entertained by waterfalls cascading from the top of the fjord walls. The captain masterfully backed us in, for photo opportunities with the falls.

The narration also pointed out rock formations, like the man's profile found laying at the top of mountain beside us.

It's a ten-mile trip through these towering cliffs to get to the end of this fjord, and passengers on the boat are free to move around to get the best views and pictures.

We stopped at the dock at the very end to let two hikers and their very big backpacks disembark. We talked to these two guys earlier. They are taking the epic three-day hike along the tops of the mountains in Gros Morne national park.

This is the view that will show up on every Newfoundland travel brochure. So the boat backed up to the tip of the pond, and waited until every group on the boat got this classic picture.

We didn't get blue skies for our boat ride this morning, but it was still a beautiful view as the clouds hung on the tops of the fjord walls around us. We have wandered into another of God's wonders today!

On the ten-mile trip back to the dock, we were surprised when the narrator and first mate treated us to some Newfoundland folk music. Out of the 100 people on board the boat, Katrina was chosen to be their guest spoons player.

It was a fun trip down the fjord (or sound) to the pond (or lake), and we had lots of laughs along the way.

We all had hot chocolate to warm our hands and bellies as we made the one-mile hike back to the car.

In 2019, we visited 7 different Canadian national parks. We learned that they placed red adirondack chairs in front of the best views in the parks. So when we saw these tiny red chairs, we had to check out the view.

Gros Morne National Park is big, and it took an hour's drive to get to our next stop within the park. This area is called "The Tablelands" and we took off on the trail.

This barren section of the national park seems so different than the rest of this very green island. That's because "The Tablelands" is one of the few places to see the mantle of the earth. We took off with the two oldest boys to explore this special place.

We normally see only the earth's crust, because the mantle is miles deeper towards the core of the earth. But in several places on the earth, a geological phenomena has left the mantle exposed. We are standing in the middle of the best place to see the earth's mantle in the entire world.

It's a little like walking on Mars because this rock layer is packed with minerals and metals that are inhospitable to plant growth. Its uniqueness makes it a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Over time, soil has covered some of the rocks, so shallow-rooted plants can survive. But the plant most likely to do well in this environment is a carnivorous plant that gets its nutrients from the bugs it traps. That is why this is one of the best places to find pitcher plants.

We learned that this is the provincial plant of Newfoundland. It digests the bugs it catches in its watery mouths so it can survive where few plants can.

We found a little water flowing down these barren mountain. But it was an unusually lifeless walk. One travel brochure listed it as the place where you can see the "soul of the planet." 

After rock scrambling along the mountain, we finally joined the board walk for a much easier hike. Our hosts have visited here once before, but it was raining that day. We had perfect weather for this hike today!

At the end of the boardwalk is the best photo opportunity to prove that we visited the mantle of the earth.

The kids (and one really big kid) enjoyed jumping over these strange rocks in these strange tablelands.

It was a much easier walk when we all took the designated trail back to the car.

It was getting cooler and the sun was setting before we got off the trail. We hiked over eight miles today, and we're still amazed that little Cooper can walk that far. That Cooper is a trooper!

The sun was turning the clouds to pink as we made the one-hour drive back to our airbnb house on the lake. We have packed the maximum hours into our three days of exploring Newfoundland with our wonderful hosts. Today we have experienced things that few people see in a lifetime--we have wandered God's wonders of the mantle and the fjords!

Newfoundland - All the Things We saw BEFORE Our Five Hour Drive

We're really enjoying our stay in Newfoundland, Canada, and our niece and nephew and family are hosting us on a great trip across this island province. We spent the night at an airbnb rental close to the coast at English Bay, and we have a five-hour drive today to get to our next destination. While everyone else was getting ready for that travel day, Denisa and the big boys were out exploring the property up the hill from the beach. We were jumping over rocks and streams.

That's where we found the best wild blueberry patch of our lives. The bushes were just loaded with berries! We ate as many as we wanted, and then went back to the house for a container.

These bushes were loaded!

A touch of autumn had turned some of the leaves red, making for a colorful display with the blue berries.

When Mark helped, it didn't take us long to get a full container of the freshest blueberries in Newfoundland!

The pickers were all pretty proud of our harvest today, and we have plans for these berries tomorrow morning.

The rolling hills on the coast are good for growing berries, and Newfoundland is especially famous for the root vegetables that prosper in this soil. In our explorations around English Beach this morning we also stumbled upon a root cellar used to store those vegetables through the winter.

As we left English Beach on this cloudy morning, we were still five hours away from our destination for today.

Our first stop this morning is just a few miles down the road. All eight of us are hiking the Skerwink Trail, so we paused for a picture by the sign.

When Denisa was researching the best hikes in Newfoundland, this signature trail was always on the list. Even though they've hiked it before, our hosts brought us here to see it for ourselves.

The ladder-like steps led us up and up . . .

to get views of the stunning coast line now below us.

The ocean water is so clear that we can see the underwater rocks and sea weed far below.

We were soon enjoying the scenery that we have been looking forward to since we started researching this island a couple years ago.

We had this trip planned for the summer of 2020, but the pandemic and the closed Canadian border canceled our itinerary. 

When Brian and Alexia called to tell us that the border was reopening, we started making plans to visit quickly. This was the first time that vaccinated American citizens could visit Newfoundland (without quarantining for two weeks) since the spring of 2020. They moved here in January 2020, so they have spent most of their time in Newfoundland in lockdown or with travel restrictions.

The cliffs got higher, and the views even more stunning as we made our loop around the tip of this peninsula.

Sometimes, you have to lay down to peek over the edge to see the water below.

It was a very long way down to the water!

It is fun to see pictures of our group of hikers, scattered along the trail.

Among our group is Cooper, a three-year-old hiking pro. We were amazed at how well he handled this  trail that was rugged at times.

While we are durable hikers, sometimes we needed to take a little rest along the Skerwink Trail.

Several of us made the trek up to the highest viewpoint for a 360-degree view.

While we spent most of the hike high above the water, we finished this 3.6-mile loop at sea level beside the beach.

That's where Camden spotted a mermaid's purse on the shore. He had learned about it in school. So he taught the rest of us that this leathery bag is actually an egg capsule for a baby shark.

We finished up our Skerwink Hike, and we're still a five-hour drive from our destination today. But we  found this shop that is housed in a real Mongolian yurt, made of sheep wool and tied with horse hair rope. The owner told us of a facebook post they had just read about a boat tour yesterday. The captain of the boat was boasting that they saw a humpback whale, dolphins, and a leatherback sea turtle. What a trip that must have been! Then we told her that we were on that boat, and she knew that we were lucky tourists!

The owners also gave us a tour of the yurt that they rent on airbnb. They got all the hand-painted pieces shipped from Asia, and then assembled it here in Newfoundland. The limited instructions were in a language that they couldn't decipher, but they finally managed to assemble it.

It looked like a lovely place to spend the night overlooking the ocean. With a kitchenette inside, and bathroom facilities nearby, it would be a very interesting "glamping" experience.

The yurt owner also pointed out the dogberry trees were just loaded with berries this year. That was a sure sign of a "poor winter." Denisa had to ask, and we found out that a "poor winter" was one filled with lots of snow and cold temperatures.

Our explorations also took us to a lovely little sandwich place for lunch. Cooper was more interested in the chickens out back. The sign says that we could request scraps from the kitchen to feed the chickens, and that's exactly what we did--even though we are still five hours away from today's destination.

Denisa had read about the village of Trinity, and she was delighted that we made a stop here as well. It's a picturesque town with brightly-colored square houses that we are coming to love here in Newfoundland.

We are also starting to love the ornate village churches with their slanted cemetery stones in the yard.

After a quick drive through town, we stopped at the dock, where the cloudy morning skies, are beginning to lift into blue.

We stopped in at Aunt Sarah's CHOCOLATE Shop, where we all sampled the ice cream.

We all enjoyed the treat, but one of us wore it especially well.

The weather this afternoon was exceptional, and the interesting skies and the calm ocean made for beautiful pictures.

Mark has found adventurous boys to explore with, and they found that the area beneath this shop held treasures from the sea.

They spotted a white star fish and a crab when they climbed down below the deck during low tide.

They also found more marine life at the end of the pier when they got especially close to the top of the water.

They spotted puffer fish and sea stars under water, and this jelly fish floating at the top.

We had meant to leave this beautiful peninsula this morning, but we were still here at 2:00 this afternoon.

We finally made ourselves get back in the cars to start our travel day across the island. We still need to make that five-hour trip today! We're traveling in two cars, and the lead car got the wildlife spottings on this road trip. Mark didn't get a picture of the moose that walked across the road in front of them. But he did get a very blurry picture of the black bear that was also on the road, before he ambled away into the woods.

The back car didn't get to see either, and we wouldn't have believed their tall tale if we hadn't seen that blurry picture. These roads are tricky to drive after dark, and even trickier when we were caught in a heavy rain storm for the last 40 kilometers. We were all relieved when we made it safely to our next airbnb house in Deer Lake. It has been another great day wandering through the best of Newfoundland. We were entertained by the beauty of this wonderful island and all these neat things we saw even BEFORE we started our five hour drive today.